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Thursday evening, forerunners in the St Petersburg mayoral race met for a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters. The event was held in St Pete City Council chambers downtown.

One often-repeated belief about the forerunners in the St Pete mayoral race is that they agree on the majority of issues. To some degree both candidates accept the need for more community policing, neighborhood revitalization, and for further educational efforts .

Asked by the moderator what issues might highlight the differences between them, Bill Foster cited Kathleen Ford's plan to use money in the city's reserve funds to balance spending.

On the issue of how the city of St Petersburg can better meet the needs of no-income & low-income housing, differences between the candidates began to emerge.

After the hour-long debate, WMNF spoke to a few of those in attendance. Joyce McCarty seemed to be leaning towards Kathleen Ford. Virginia Littrell, who once served on the St Pete City Council, supports Bill Foster. And Chris Brudy wholly supports Kathleen Ford. He told WMNF about his views on "consensus building."

The mayoral and city council elections will take place November 3rd. This forum is to be re-aired on St Pete TV a number of times. Consult http://stpete.org for more information.